Hal Foster begins his Preface to
The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture(1983) (reprinted as
Postmodern Culture(1985)) with these questions: “Postmodernism: does it exist at all and, if so, what does it mean? Is it a concept or a practice, a matter of local style or a whole new period or economic phase? What are its forms, effects, place? How are we to mark its advent? Are we truly beyond the modern, truly in (say) a postindustrial age?” (vii). These questions concerned something which had already, by then, been around for almost fifty years, in name at least (Federico de Onís referred to
postmodernismoin his
Antología de la poesía española e hispanoamericana (1882-1932)(1934), the American poet Charles Olson had spoken of “postmodern man” in a letter to Robert…
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Citation: Coughlan, David. "Postmodernism". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 December 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=889, accessed 22 November 2024.]
